Hartnell: Not making the playoffs playing that way

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PHILADELPHIA — Scott Hartnell was in no mood to talk about silver linings, even if his Flyers teammates gave a valiant effort late Monday night.

Moments after another disappointing loss — the sixth time the Flyers have failed to even their record at .500 this season — Hartnell said if the Flyers keep playing the way they did early against the Toronto Maple Leafs, they won’t make the playoffs.

“We’re not going to make the playoffs if we keep playing that way,’’ Hartnell said after the 4-2 defeat.

“We talked about it after the game, if we don’t learn fast, as in Wednesday night (against Washington), it’s going to be a long season.’’

Some would say it already has been a long one. Nearing the halfway point of this abbreviated season, the Flyers find themselves at 9-11-1 and standing on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

“Guys have to realize that,’’ Hartnell continued. “Every point counts ... game 20 or game 30. We have to wake it up, that’s for sure.’’

The Flyers have been outscored 29-12 in those six attempts at getting to .500.

In the past four games, slow starts have been a big problem. The Flyers have fallen behind by at least two goals at the outset and while they have won two of those, it’s not a good blueprint for victories.

“When we play like we did the last 10 minutes, there isn’t a team in the league that can play with us,’’ Hartnell said. “We were skating, we were hitting, we were beating them to pucks, winning battles. That’s something in the first 50 minutes we didn’t do.’’

The Leafs jumped on top at 17:20 of the first when Phil Kessel beat Kimmo Timonen off the rush and sent a bullet past Ilya Bryzgalov.

Then Nike Kulemin made it 2-0 at 15:02 of the second on some nice stickwork from Nazem Kadri.

Hartnell finally broke through for the Flyers at 17:56 off a nice feed from Jake Voracek but the Leafs got that one back on a Mikhail Grabovski goal at 7:52 of the third. Voracek got the Flyers within one at 3-2 on a power-play goal at 11:42 but Jay McClement closed it with an empty-net goal.

Zac Rinaldo agreed with Hartnell that the Flyers have to pick up their game on a consistent basis soon, especially early in the contests. The season is nearly half over and teams under .500 are not going to make the playoffs.

“We have to come out guns blazing in the first period,’’ Rinaldo said. “I know it’s been lacking in the first period the last couple games — we have to pick things up.

“Maybe we have to put more pressure on ourselves to realize where we are in the standings. Hopefully, it gets into some guys’ heads.’’

Bryzgalov knows the Flyers aren’t happy with their play through this first month or so.

“Tough year for us,’’ he said. “I agree with him (Hartnell). We need to do lots of work. We have to play every game like it’s our last chance to make playoffs.

“Otherwise we watch playoffs on TV.’’

As for the slow starts, the Flyers know they can’t count on a rally every night. They’ve allowed the first goal of the game 12 times in 21 games and have a 3-8-1 record to show for it.

“We need to find a way to get that first goal,’’ Claude Giroux said. “Our starts have to be better and when we get the starts we want we keep the momentum. Like I’ve said, we play a lot of games in not a lot of nights so we need to put this game behind us and get ready for next game.”

Added Voracek: “We just have to keep working. It’s not going to be an easy way to make the playoffs this year.’’

Small stretches of good play aren’t enough.

“We play a good two periods or half a game really well but then there’s just dark moments or bad periods,’’ Timonen said. “You lose games in this league just by that.’’

Coach Peter Laviolette said his team can’t afford to continue the slow starts.

“We have to have the lead and move forward from there,’’ he said. “But there isn’t anything you can do about it, you have to continue to fight for it, work for it, move forward and look for a win.’’

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